For the Love of Red Roses
by Shonbori
Summary: The whole universe is turned upside down when a powerful Makai artifact wreaks havok on the world in unsuspecting places. To add to the trouble, will a budding love triangle be able to survive the ups and downs of an impossible dream? KuramaxOC
1. Chapter 1: Kaira's Dream

Author's note: Do to the popularity of my Kuramaxyou quiz on quizilla, I decided to make public the origin story of "Red Rose Reality" (you can find a link to this on my profile). The extra characters in this story are very tightly based on my friends, and the other character, Tawa, who was in the original has been edited out, do to some disputes. Thank you all very much for your kind reviews and I hope this version of the story will interest you as well!

The last few weeks of summer were drearily hot and sunny. The girl down the street was hardly affected though, and as she came upon her house after her walk around the block in this horrid heat, the neighbors peered, probably from lack of much else to do, out their windows at her. She was quite peculiar it seemed. She was often seen with 'backwards' books (surely those were demonic!) and she sometimes sang to herself while walking down the street, in something that must have been Chinese, or Japanese, or whatever. But the most peculiar thing about her was that she seemed to have a crush on a cartoon character.  
"He's NOT a cartoon character. He's an anime character, beotch."  
Oh well. Whatever HE was (if it was a he; sometimes the neighbors were not certain) he was most likely something of hell. Violent things that girl watched…

"Hey Mom, I'm back!"  
Kaira shut the door to her house as quietly as possible, waited for it to click, and the scurried over to her mother, who seemed to be digging around for something.  
"Kaira-chan?" Without looking up her mother continued to look for some unknown, elusive object behind some old boxes.  
"Mom, what the heck are you doing?"  
"I got a call while you were gone. You're father and I have to leave for a week for a business trip."  
"Ah. So where'll I be going?" Kaira blinked and watched as her mother pulled out a large suitcase from behind a box.  
"You're old enough to stay here by yourself. Your brothers will be staying with your uncle for the week."  
"Check." Kaira saluted her mother and turned to walk up to her room, and then stopped. "When are you leaving, anyway?"  
"As soon as possible. We got late notice."  
"So, tonight?"  
"Probably so."  
Kaira shrugged and walked over to the stairway. "I don't suppose you need any help packing?"  
"No, thank you."  
She continued up the stairs, her hand firmly on the railing. She let go and turned a corner to get to her room. She pushed her door open, and sat down on her bed. "Good Afternoon, Rama-chan."  
The Kurama plushie on her pillow said nothing.  
Kaira patted it on the head and looked around her room. Her haven. She sat down on her bed and began to read a manga with mild interest.

A few hours later, her parents had left, and she waved them goodbye, alone in the house. Her brothers had been taken by her uncle for the week. Sweet silence.   
She was alone for the entire week. This was something a girl could only dream of. She walked around the table, on the intent of going into the kitchen for some food, but her foot hit a toy car, and instead she skidded downward, smashing her forehead into the corner of the table, and she lay silently, blood dripping from her forehead. Everything became hazy; soon all was dark.

Darkness. Everything was soaked in darkness. Kaira ran as fast as she could, but what was chasing her, she  
didn't even know. She was barefoot, her feet splashing through the puddles of rainwater on the ground, covering her legs in water. Her normally wavy, dark brown hair was ratty and tangled around her shoulders, and her tanned face was unusually pale. Suddenly, she slid across the ground, and stopped. Standing in front of her was Kurama. She cared for him so. Her smiled at her and touched her cheek, and she put her hand into her pocket, drawing out a tiny, shimmering gold marble. "Kurama…" she whispered.

Regaining consciousness, Kaira did not open her eyes, but lay there for a moment or so. She could feel she was lying on her back, with a towel on her forehead, where she had hit it some time ago. She was still a little dizzy, but she moved to sit up.  
"Hey, she's getting up!"  
Wait…she knew that voice. Who was that? Kaira opened her eyes.  
"Holy SHIT! I did hit my head." She blinked a few times in disbelief.  
"See, Kuwabara, I told you your face would scare her."  
She was too busy staring to hear the last comment.  
Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei were standing in front of her.  
"You're- you're Kuwabara!"


	2. Chapter 2: Introductions

A/N  
Chapter 2 is up! A little more character information for Kaira/Neko in this chapter. More to come next chapter.  
Thank you to the people who put me on alert for this story. I love it when people enjoy reading my stuff. Onward to the story, yes! More on the dream and the marble, as well...Okay, really! Story time!

Disclaimer: If I owned YYH, this would not be on a FANFICTION site, now, would it?

* * *

Had she not been shocked herself, Kaira would have probably been incredibly amused with the fact the Kazuma Kuwabara was slowly backing away from her. She reached up and removed the towel from her forehead, which was still a little sore, and sat upright.  
"How'd you know my name!" Kuwabara stuttered, "You're not another creepy psychic or something, are you!"  
In truth, Kaira was very interested in the occult and that sort of thing, but now wasn't the time for that. There were so many unanswered questions right now. What was going on? Why were the Spirit Detectives here in her house? What the heck happened, anyway?  
She spoke more calmly now. "I think…it's kind of hard to explain." She felt the mark on her forehead; it felt like a bad bruise, and she could tell there was a little dried blood on her face, but for the most part, it was well taken care of.

She reached for the manga she was reading. It was on the table from when she had brought it down earlier. Opening the copy of Yu Yu Hakusho Volume 3, she thumbed the pages for the scene she was looking for.  
"Ah, here it is." She held up the book, flipping the page every so often, the illustrations of the characters standing out on the pages. When she was done, she held the book up with one hand, and pointed to each person in turn with her index finger.  
"You," she pointed at Kuwabara, "Are Kazuma Kuwabara. Age 15."  
"You," she turned and pointed at Yusuke next, "Are Yusuke Urameshi. Age 15."  
"You, " she said, pointing to Hiei "Are Hiei, the forbidden child of the Jagan eye. Age Unknown."  
"And you," she said carefully, looking at her favorite character greedily, "Are Shuuichi Minamino. Also known as the infamous thief Youko Kurama, or Kurama, for short. Age 300 as Youko, 16 as Minamino-san." Kaira smiled.  
She pointed to herself last. "I'm Kaira Yoshida, ring leader of the Kuramaism cult. Age 14. But," she added as an afterthought, "my best friends call me Neko, so either one is good. I prefer Neko."

While the boys had been reasonably quiet the whole time, Hiei finally spoke.  
"Hn. I'm not standing around here any longer. If any of you fools wish to stay with the mental woman, it's fine by me; I'm leaving."  
He strode off toward the door, and jiggled the doorknob a few times, but it refused to open. For a moment, Kaira was afraid he would tear the door off its hinges by the look on his face, but before he could, it looked as though something unseen jerked him unexpectedly backwards.

Kaira looked down. Something in her jean pocket was burning. Standing up quickly, Neko thrust her hand into it and pulled out a shiny gold marble. She had definitely seen it before.  
"Okay, this is just getting weirder and weirder…"  
Kurama looked over at her. "Is something wrong, Neko-san?"  
"I'm not really sure…"

Hiei looked frustrated as he plodded back over to where everyone else was standing. Kaira proceeded to toss the marble up with one hand and catch it, while looking deep in thought.  
"You still haven't told us anything." Yusuke reminded her.  
"I think…" Kaira cocked her head to one side. "I can give you a better explanation if I show you to my room."  
The boys shrugged as she motioned the way, walking up the stairs with her manga in one hand, her other still tossing and catching the marble. She stopped at the doorway, her eyes apprehensive. Her hand on the doorknob, she looked back at Kurama.  
"Er…Kurama-san?"  
He looked back at her. "Yes, Neko-san?"  
"I want to say this ahead of time…The stuff in my room, I think it might…scare you a little, in particular."


End file.
